Big Head Todd & The Monsters [Sister Sweetly] Big Head Todd & The Monsters are probably not familiar to most people, i got this album in early 1995, those were the years that i went to my local Library to check out possible new Bands / Artists, i saw a cassette tape of this album there, and it looked good, to hire it out for 2 weeks only cost £1, it's inexpensive risks like this that can yield some great results, and this album i took to straight away, i haven't played it for a while, but today i gave it a spin, and all the memories of why i thought it was great 15 years ago came flooding back, it really is a soulful hard rock album, with some tremendous vibes to it.
A mention of the back insert, it doesn't actually go with the front booklet, that's because i've amalgamated two discs into one, i used the Sister Sweetly booklet, and used the back insert from their Strategem album, with a sticker in the corner with the Sister Sweetly album tracklist.
Big Head Todd & The Monsters are an American Rock Band, formed in Colorado in 1986, with,
Todd Park Mohr - Vocals, Lead Guitar
Brian Nevin - Drums
Rob Squires - Bass Guitar
the Booklet front cover [by Melodie McDaniel], is of a disused rural wooden church in the background, and some out of focus effects, the lettering is quite nice.
The tracks that really impressed me were 1, 3 & 5-10, well that's almost all of them!, and on this listen, the track which impressed me the most was track 7 'Soul For Every Cowboy', here's the highlights,
1 - Broken Hearted Saviour, with a nice chugging background riff. lyrics - 'and every passing day, she flickers and she fades', the remembrance / forgetting of an old flame.
3 - Turn The Light Out, this is certainly heavier, with a groovy vibe to it. lyrics - 'i closed the door, she stole the key', sounds like she left and burned her bridges so he couldn't follow.
5 - It's Alright, a very lazy beat, soul music almost, a bit of a reggae-ish vibe. lyrics - 'only when you're broken down, is that what friends are for?', 'friends' appear only when they need you!.
6 - Groove Thing, almost a 'talkie' track, like a DJ talking over an instrumental 'soul man' groove. lyrics - 'what is the colour of the soul?'.
7 - Soul For Every Cowboy, like the opening track, a gently chugging riff, reverberant vocals, nice guitar solo. lyrics - 'his heart soon forgets, that ever he was loved or wanted to be loved'.
8 - Ellis Island, another innocent vibe, very nice drum work here. lyrics - 'New York lady slips underneath the dim trumpet light', wow! sounds so Jazzy, like a spotlight meant for Miles Davis or something, best lyrics on the album.
9 - Bittersweet, a lovely laid back groove, sweet soulful vocals, sounds almost a live track, this is my favourite track, a sort of soulful Dire Straits. lyrics - 'of brighter meadows, melting sunsets, her hair blowing in the breeze', remembering her as she was.
10 - Circle, a more harder track, negative in a way, but another good groove. lyrics - 'cause all life, is really just a circle', we all go round and round and round, no real beginning and no end!.
You can listen to some samples on the Amazon website.
